Political suicide at City Hall

That scream you heard just after 3 p.m. Monday was the San Diego City Council slitting its own throat.

It was about that time the council voted 5-3 to override Mayor Bob Filner’s Jan. 18 veto of the council’s appointment last month of attorney Rafael Castellanos and businessman Marshall Merrifield – one a Democrat, one a Republican, both highly qualified – to the Unified Port District Board of Commissioners. Six votes were required, so the motion to override failed. Council members Sherri Lightner, David Alvarez and Marti Emerald sided with the mayor.

The council’s appointment of Castellanos and Merrifield was a compromise and a genuine display of bipartisanship. By contrast, the Filner veto and the council’s failure to override it were bald displays of partisanship.

And it was Filner’s first use of his veto power since taking office in early December, giving him a huge political victory in his first tug-of-war with the council. It does not bode well for the council in future veto battles – and, yes, there will be more such tiffs.

More significantly as far as public policy is concerned, San Diego will be left with two of its three seats on the seven-member port commission vacant for as long as five more months. That alone should have been a compelling argument for Lightner, Alvarez and Emerald. Sadly, it wasn’t.